“This is Captain Bastian Black of the Icarus. And Captain Corea’s right. You guys are about to get blindsided. Any moment now the Djarik are going to show up with enough firepower to knock that shiny blue marble of ours clear out of the ring, so if you’re really the one in charge, you need to shut up and listen. And if you’re not, then you need to get the person who is.”

There was a short pause before Marcellis spoke again.

“Bastian Black? Bastian Daedalus Black?”

Kat winced. Leo groaned. Never good when they knew your whole name.

“Captain Black, you are wanted by the Coalition of Planets, the United Peoples of Earth, and the Aykarian empire for the crimes of piracy and treason,” the commander continued. “You and your cohorts will power down your ships immediately and prepare to be boarded and taken into custody.”

“Knew this would happen.” Kat jammed the big blue coms button with her thumb. “I don’t think you understand the situation, Commander Marcellis. We aren’t the bad guys here. We came to warn you. To help you.”

“I understand enough,” Marcellis fired back. “I understand that we have now identified two of your ships as belonging to the pirate Bastian Black and a bounty hunter named Zennia Sendova, both with outstanding warrants. Once you are safely apprehended, we can discuss the credibility of this supposed threat. Now deactivate your shields and power down your weapons or I will be forced to do it for you.”

“They’re not listening,” Kat muttered.

Leo bristled. He was getting a little tired of being threatened. He leaned forward and mashed the same button Kat had been pressing. “Hello? Hello? Whoever can hear me . . . my name is Leo Fender. My father is Dr. Calvin Fender. The Djarik captured him and forced him to help create a weapon that uses ventasium to blow up whole planets and they’ve picked this one to test it on. When they come, you won’t be able to stop them.” Leo finally took a breath.

“Wow, ship rat. Talk about laying all your cards on the table,” Kat whispered.

But it didn’t matter. The commander wasn’t buying it. “I have seven capital ships, three squadrons of starfighters, two thousand men, and a planet full of surface-to-air weapons systems that say otherwise,” Marcellis countered. “Now deactivate your systems immediately or risk being fired upon.”

“This is getting us nowhere.” Kat switched over to the closed channel, linking back up with Baz and Zenn directly. “I don’t know, Baz. Maybe we just let the EDF take us. We’ve got Crayt on board. We’ve got Dr. Fender’s data files. The message. The device. They’ll have to listen to us.”

“Unless they get the Aykari involved,” Leo said. He stared at his home. So close now. Who has the most to lose? he wondered to himself.

“The kid’s right,” Baz said. “This device gets turned over to the Aykari and it might never get used. What do you think, Zenn?”